FLYING NORTH

For the present the importance of Russia's Arctic air lines
lies in their strategical value and the support they provide
to the opening up of the northern region. Without aviation
the whole scheme of industrial development, settlement,
geological and geographical exploration, and of navigation
along the Northern Sea Route would be unthinkable. The
aeroplanes serve as scouts for the ice-breakers., which they
keep informed of the floes at distances not visible from the
crow's nest. When Bleriot flew across the Channel in 1910
Fridtjof Nansen—with other Scandinavians who were even
then keen on the commercial development of Arctic navi-
gation as a trade route to Siberia—said: eNow the road for
shipping in the ice-bound Arctic Ocean is open.' Until
Bleriot's time—and for long after—navigation in ships in
those altitudes had always remained an experiment; success
or failure depended on chance more than on skill. This is
how it was described at the time: 'Days and days passed
by. The danger of being caught for the winter increased
while we tried to find a clear passage among the ice. The
view from the observer's highest mast did not reach further
than about twenty miles. Hours were spent in desperate
effort to cut through a field behind which we hoped to find
clear water. Cursing and swearing was at its worst when we
found after all the labour of crew and ship that everything
had been in vain. There was more ice ahead.'

When I was on board the ice-breaker Termak, watching
its strategical operations against the white enemy of shipping,
the treachery and power of our foe was no less than it had
been thirty years ago. But we were better armed. As soon
as we set out to fight for a passage we sent a radio message
for the dispatch of an aeroplane from the shore base.
Within half an hour the ice watch pilot was circling over
our bridge. He left us and surveyed hundreds of square
miles, rising high above the sea. His observer watched the
slowly drifting fields and floes below. He drew a map of
their constellation. His first advice reached us by wireless.

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